The Price to be Paid
by Iellix
Summary: To live the way they live--and to do the things they do--some things must be sacrificed. There is a price to be paid.


Well, I'm another one of those recent 'Primeval' fans who was tempted over to the fandom because of Andrew-Lee Potts in 'Alice'. This is my first fic here and I'm doubtful as to whether I'll write more. I just fancied painting a less-than-rosy picture of Connor and Abby's relationship.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, or anything else you recognize.

* * *

They've been 'together' for over two years; they sleep in the same bed and constantly jump in and out of one another's pants, but still haven't technically ever been on a date. It's not for lack of trying—Connor, bless him, tried to do everything 'right' for a while there, arranging nice quiet dinners at home or evenings out at her favourite restaurants, but the best-laid plans are no match for prehistoric megafauna crawling all over the British Isles. Their work always takes priority over their previous plans and eventually he stopped making them all together.

Whenever they _do_ have time to themselves, alone, Abby always finds it much better spent testing the structural soundness of their furniture and Connor's pelvis than trying to do things 'normal' couples do. Their lives are all danger, unpredictable—chasing dinosaurs and trying to keep nasty people from dicking around with timelines and hoping they don't create a paradox somewhere, all madness and science-fiction and many million light-years away from 'normal'.

Doing what they do, there's no room for 'normal' in their lives.

o…o

It starts with a question. It comes out of the blue while they're camped out at an anomaly site, spending their guard-shift watching the locked anomaly and waiting for it to close.

"Connor, d'you ever think about getting married?"

"My goodness, Abigail, are you proposing?"

"Maybe."

It's probably an unfair stereotype that all girls dream for years about their fantasy-weddings, plotting out all the tiny details in their heads and waiting to snag a groom before they can set their plans in motion. Abby certainly isn't the girly type, not like that—she likes lizards and snakes and dinosaurs and dirty Converse and wearing his jeans and hoodies, not frilly dresses and centrepieces and fantasy princesses. But she admits that she always fancied wearing a purple dress to get married, just because no one else does it, but she says she'll just wear jeans since they might get an anomaly call and she won't have time to change. There's no room for purple dresses for them.

They're going to go to the registry office when they have a few hours to themselves; they haven't planned for a honeymoon because they know there's no way they could get the time off and it's not like they can call in a couple of temps for a week while they go off to have sex in a hotel room in another country.

They barely get the papers signed and barely get through the conversation with the registrar when their mobiles go off and they have to jump into Abby's Mini and drive off.

They spend their wedding night searching for giant ground-sloths in Torquay.

o…o

It's been a long, rough day and Abby knows it's about to get harder. She waits for Connor to get home and she meets him at the top of the stairs.

"Hey."

"Hi. How'd it go with the doctor—everything all right?"

She doesn't answer right away.

"Abbs?"

"I'm pregnant."

His eyes go big and his mouth pops open. They've been careful and she's on the pill but if anything they know that _nothing_ is impossible. Finally he asks, "What are we gonna do?"

They had this conversation once before, a serious discussion in which they came to the conclusion that there was no way they could keep living their lives _and_ have children. To bring a baby into this world of dinosaurs and holes torn in time and space would be at best stupid and at worst _really_ dangerous; they live every day under the threat of death and to have a kid knowing it's likely they could leave it orphaned is cruel.

No, there's no room for children in their lives. They both know what needs to be done.

"Will you come with me?" She asks.

"Of course."

Connor comes with her and holds her hand, and then takes her home and puts her to bed on the sofa with a stack of movies and a hot water bottle and some of her painkillers.

"You feeling all right?"

"Fine. Just a little crampy is all." She knows that's not what he meant and he gives her a look and she sighs. "I feel okay. I don't regret what I did. We knew what we'd have to do if it ever came to this. I'm not sorry."

"Neither am I."

"But that doesn't mean it's something I took lightly."

"Me neither."

The pills take effect and she gets woozy and falls asleep, and he kisses her forehead and pulls the blanket up to her chin and lets her sleep.

o…o

Their lives are all madness, insanity, danger; it's not without excitement, but the excitement of it all comes at a price. In order to live the way they do, hunting dinosaurs and saving the world as a matter of routine and keeping the occasional renegade prehistoric creature for pets, they've had to sacrifice the things that 'normal' people do. A normal courtship, a normal wedding, a normal marriage, having children—these are all things that the world takes for granted but that, for Connor and Abby, are completely out of the question. They are the sacrifices that have had to be made.

But for this—this amazing project they get to be a part of, for the people they get to work with, for the things they get to see and experience, things that absolutely _no one else_ has ever seen or experienced—and for one another, it's a small price to pay.


End file.
